For more than five years I held onto a heartfelt wish: to revisit Our Lady of Consolation in Vattmann, TX. Only I had no idea where the town was other than off Highway 77, which we travel to and from Brownsville with regularity.

Our Lady of Consolation

On one of our trips south to the valley, I asked Steven if he would treat me to lunch at King’s Inn. And he agreed.

From the road I spotted a red brick structure. “Is that Our Lady of Consolation Church?”

“It must be. I’m surprised it’s on the way to King’s Inn.”

Happy day! What a perfect opportunity to take photos after lunch.

Unexpected detours

And the best part about stopping at church? We met Maria, a sweet, soulful woman with connections to Sr. Maxie at Mother Julia’s Chapel and Museum in Kingsville. Absolutely amazing, considering that we had no idea then that we’d take an unexpected detour to Kingsville (where I took more photos) on our way home three days later.

Morning offering… O Jesus, through the immaculate heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your sacred heart in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world; in thanksgiving for your favors; in reparation for my sins; for the intentions of all my relatives and friends; and, in particular, for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

May 24, 2016

“As a mother feels no disgust in dressing the sores of her child, so Mary, the heavenly infirmarian, never refuses to care for sinners who have recourse to her” (St. Alphonsus).

June 4, 2016

Dearest Mother, please look on your people who confidently honor you as their mother [and long] for your help and consolation. Bless us in your heart, comfort us in our pains, stand by us in all distress, show us Jesus after our death (St. Hildegard of Bingen).

June 10, 2016

“Let us ask Our Lady’s help today in living our own dedication to the full, in whatever state God has placed us, in accordance with the specific vocation we have received from the Lord” (Fr. Francis Fernandez Carvajal).

Steven and I arrived a whole hour before Saturday evening Mass and, thanks to the recent time (light) change, Our Lady of Guadalupe looked picture perfect in its palm greenery; so how could I ignore God’s impromptu invitation to bask in the windows and the stations that I’d last photographed in 2012?

And I discovered something new!

God’s lovely gifts

Among the exquisite stained-glass windows are sixteen— not fourteen or fifteen, but sixteen— stations of the cross! Amazing.

I can understand the fifteenth station, the glorious resurrection; but to depict Jesus in the garden before his way of the cross? Extraordinary.

As for the Last Supper? When one glimpses the back altar from either side of the front altar, one can see the lit portion below the mantle. Stunning.

What lovely gifts God has in store when we make time for him!

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. Because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

At the cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last

Through her heart his sorrow sharing,
all his bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword had passed.

Oh how sad and sore distressed
was that mother highly blessed
of the sole-begotten one!

Christ above in torment hangs;
she beneath beholds the pangs
of her dying, glorious son.

Is there one who would not weep,
o’rwhelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ’s dear mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain
from partaking in her pain
in that mother’s pain untold?

For the sins of his own nation
saw him hang in desolation,
all with bloody scourges rent.

Stabat Mater, a thirteenth century hymn that tells the story of Our Lady of Sorrows during the passion of Christ, was translated by Fr. Edward Caswall (1814-1878) from Liturgia Horarum. (See links below.) An abridged version accompanies the stations in Behold! The Way of the Cross (Gouin, Creative Communications for the Parish, 2001).

March 21, 2017

God of life, we are grateful for the many gifts that you have given to us. May we become prudent stewards of your many gifts and not thoughtlessly waste water, food, and other resources. May we respond to your Son’s cry of thirst with lives of peacemaking and just action. We make his prayer in your name. Amen (Daniel P. Horan, OFM in The Last Words of Jesus).

April 8, 2017

Dear God, we ask that you hear our Lenten prayer of praise, surrender, and petition. We praise you for the many gifts that you have given us. We surrender our control, seeking to follow Jesus’s model of humility while striving to love as he loved us. We recognize that suffering comes with love, that great love and great suffering can transform us, but that neither experience is necessarily easy. We offer our petition to you, praying that we might have the strength of our convictions, the hope of our faith, and the joy of that hope when times are difficult. May we always place our trust in you and commend our whole selves to your care. In doing so, may we always proclaim, in word and deed, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done! Amen (Daniel P. Horan, OFM in The Last Words of Jesus: A Meditation on Love and Suffering).

April 9, 2017

The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:8-9).

June 5, 2017

“The will of God is not a fate which has to be endured, but a holy and meaningful act which ushers in a new creation” (Romano Guardini in The Art of Praying).

June 30, 2017

In the gospels, Jesus introduces us to God the Father and invites us into his heavenly realm right here on earth, the kingdom of God. He opens our eyes to see that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world, which we can touch, taste, see, hear, and smell (our physical world), and God’s kingdom, which is unseen but just as real— in fact, even more so.

By getting to know Jesus Christ and learning how to connect with him spiritually, we can become “kingdom-of-God dwellers.” But because we have been given the gift of free will, each of us must decide, every minute of each day, in which kingdom we will choose to place our hope and trust (Melissa Overmyer in Born to Soar: Unleashing God’s Word in Your Life).

July 21, 2017

All Christians know that God became man for us. Not all, however, realize that he did more than this. Not only did he become one of us, he willed also to make each one of us a part of himself. In addition to the mystery of the in­carnation, there is the mystery of incorporation. We are incorporated into the person of Christ (Raoul Plus, SJ in How To Pray Well).

July 25, 2017

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).

Last year Steven and I drove to Goose Island for Palm Sunday Mass at Stella Maris, and Father Ralph was overjoyed to see us.

“I was hoping you two would show up! I’ve got great news! Follow me so we can talk,” Father said, leading us to the slightly bigger than standing room only space behind the altar.

Miracle shared

Without being asked Joe, attentive sacristan and devoted friend, opened a folding chair for Father to sit as he shared his latest stories with us.

“I’m healed!” Father gushed and then proceeded to fill in all the glorious details as Steven bent down to listen and I looked up intently, almost breathlessly, from where I sat on the old wood floor.

We couldn’t get enough! After all the trips to M.D. Anderson and more, Father Ralph’s news was the answer to our collective prayers. We were so grateful for Father’s reprieve from his medical roller coaster ride that we couldn’t stop smiling. Again and again we thanked and praised God for his merciful kindness.

Faith revisited

Father Ralph was on fire. He was a walking-talking miracle whose homily, in part, focused on a familiar story from the Bible.

Or take the woman who had obviously heard Jesus preach. She might even have seen some of the miracles. She’d gone to doctors for twelve years. She had a hemorrhage. Only women can appreciate the misery of all that, day in and day out. No cure. And she’d spent all her money.

’If I could just touch the hem of his garment,’ she thought, ‘I would be healed.’

That’s a position of faith, isn’t it? She wanted a point of contact, so she could release her faith. And the power of God would come flowing through her body.

Did she find it easy to get to Jesus? Oh, it was easy to see him. ‘Yes, there he is over there. Uh-huh. I see the prayer shawl. Oh, my goodness. There are so many people around him!’

She didn’t let the press interfere with the possibility of cure. She didn’t let the devil talk her out of it. She pushed and shoved— did whatever she had to do— until, finally, she got behind him. She touched his garment, the hem of his prayer shawl.

Jewish men wear the tallit in Israel to this day when they pray at the Wailing Wall. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. I have one that I use. At the base of it are all these tassels that represent the Commandments of God, the promises of God.

What the woman was thinking was, ‘If I touch the one that keeps all the Commandments and if I touch the one for healing, I will be made whole.’

The woman released her faith when she touched it, and Jesus said, ‘Virtue has come out. Who has touched me?’

’I did,’ the woman replied.

’Your faith has made you whole,’ Jesus told her.

So it’s always an impediment to get to Jesus, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s our own doubt. Most of the time, it’s the devil.

‘Oh, but you don’t deserve to have a miracle. Remember what you did when you were a young man? Or a young woman? Just forget that, and just keep going. You can’t change, and God can’t forgive you. You’ll never have a miracle.’

Oh, my goodness. The devil is the father of lies, isn’t he?

Although Father’s homily wasn’t perfectly geared for Palm Sunday, it certainly touched on the faith— the “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1)— that Jesus embodies for us to witness during Holy Week.

Lesson gleaned

Through Father Ralph God refreshed us with yet another of his extraordinary lessons. Believing requires stoutheartedness, courage, and patience. Believing is trusting that God knows best. “Your will be done,” not mine (Matthew 26:42).

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34).

Father’s roses

After Mass Father Ralph insisted that Steven and I accompany him to the back yard. With scissors in hand he snipped at his prized rosebush; created a lovely, fragrant, lavender-pink cluster; and jubilantly presented me with the unexpected bouquet.

Thoughtful? Yes. Then again, healthy or unwell, that’s Father Ralph.

On the drive home, in the days that followed, and especially now that Father Ralph’s health has waned again, his roses are more than just a sweet remembrance of our time at Stella Maris; they’re an enduring recollection of God’s loving mercy celebrated on Palm Sunday a year ago.

March 18, 2016

I struggled with [the devil] in my imprisonment. At one moment I thought I was victorious; the next day I was defeated. This cruel and stubborn fight lasted five years. Then God gave me the grace to triumph over my enemy (St. Augustine).

We are not to be without pain. Pain is Jesus suffering in us, but we are to look to him for strength and courage. We are to learn this ability to shoulder our cross by gazing at him and being gentle and humble in heart (Mother Angelica on Suffering and Burnout).

Three weeks ago Steven and I met up again with Fr. Mario Conte, OFM Conventual from the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Italy and Tom Muscatello, USA liaison from St. Adalbert Friary in Elmhurst, NY, and picked up right where we left off almost three years ago at St. Anthony’s in Rockford, IL, June 14, 2013.

Meeting Abelardo

What gorgeous grounds! I had no idea that Illinois could produce such green grass and beautiful plants, so— catching sight of the gardener— I walked a good distance to where he was and thanked him for making my day. In turn, Abelardo, who hails from Michoacán, Mexico, expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to do what he loves. Then, in the middle of our lovely conversation, Steven called out that Mass would start soon so off I went after our cordial goodbyes.

Greeting Fr. Mario

I looked quite disheveled on entering church. I hadn’t even combed my hair! But there was Steven pushing past my I’m-not-ready moments.

“Look, there’s Fr. Mario. Here’s your chance. Go talk to him.”

I felt even more pressured when Steven walked up to Fr. Mario and they both turned to look at me.

Oh, my gosh! What could I do but smile?

I was so glad to finally meet Fr. Mario that I quickly forgot my appearance, and we’ve been in each other’s thoughts and prayers ever since.

Venerating St. Anthony

During Mass Fr. Mario welcomed Steven and me as “the two who traveled the farthest, all the way from Texas” to be among the faithful venerating St. Anthony’s first-class relics that evening. We felt so very specially blessed.

Prayers

Good St. Anthony, in God’s providence you have secured for his people many marvelous favors. You have been especially celebrated, good
St. Anthony, for your goodness to the poor and the hungry, for finding employment for those seeking it, for your special care of those who travel, and for keeping safe from harm all who must be away from home.

You are widely known also, good St. Anthony, for securing peace in the family, for your delicate mercy in finding lost things, for safe delivery of messages, and for your concern for women in childbirth.

In honoring you, St. Anthony, for the many graces our Lord grants through your favor, we trustfully and confidently ask your aid in our present need.

V. Pray for us, good St. Anthony.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray… May it be a source of joy, O God, to your Church that we honor the memory of your confessor and doctor, St. Anthony. May his spiritual help always make us strong; and, by his assistance, may we enjoy an eternal reward. This we ask through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Contact information

You can reach the Anthonian Association of the Friends of St. Anthony of Padua by mail at 101 Saint Anthony Drive, Mount Saint Francis, IN 47146-9001. Or you can call 1.812.923.6356 (fax 1.812.923.3200), if you prefer. The staff is very friendly!